He grins. “I’ll ruin you for any other man.”
He leans over, placing a light kiss on my cheek. Inhaling his cologne, I’m overcome with a sudden urge to taste him. Moving my head slightly, his lips are on mine slowly at first before he’s kissing me back with a furious need. Sliding his arms around my waist, he deepens the kiss, his tongue dancing across my lower lip. He’s one hell of a good kisser, and I don’t want it to stop. I slide my arms around his neck, urging him closer. I shouldn’t want this, but I do. I crave him like a drug. I don’t know why but I do.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Lazaro’s voice rings through the bar. I jump away from Sebastian like he’s just bitten me and turn to look at Lazaro. There’s a flash of recognition on Lazaro’s face and then it’s gone. “I turn up to surprise you and I’m the one surprised. You know what… fuck this.” He turns and walks away.
“Laz…” I call but he doesn’t stop, doesn’t look back.
I grab my bag to follow him out the door as Sebastian grabs my arm. “I’m sorry,” he says.
“Not as sorry as I am. Please just leave me alone.”
I yank my arm out of Sebastian’s grip and chase after Lazaro. Bursting through the bar door into the parking lot, I see Lazaro peel out onto the street. I collapse onto the sidewalk, tears pouring from my eyes and my heart shattering into a million pieces. What have I done? I know exactly what I’ve done. I cheated on my boyfriend and he saw. My chest heaves as I attempt to suck in oxygen through the tears. I hear the door open, and I look back to find Evan rushing towards me.
“Tris, what happened?” he asks, squatting next to me.
“It’s a long story. Can you please just take me home?”
“Yea, let me grab Jaxson’s keys.” He stands, taking my hands to help me up. Once he’s sure I’m steady, he disappears back inside to get the keys to Jaxson’s truck to take me home.
Climbing into Jaxson’s truck, I’m quiet the entire way home. Stray tears slide down my cheeks. If only I’d talked to Lazaro about my feelings about him and me, perhaps none of this would’ve happened.
“You okay?” Evan asks through the cab of the truck.
I shake my head. “No, I’m so stupid, Evan.”
“You’re not stupid. If Laz paid more attention to you, maybe you wouldn’t feel the need to seek out another man for it. Not that I’m okay with you kissing the other guy.”
Is Evan, right? Was I using Sebastian for the attention that I was craving from Lazaro, or is there more to Sebastian and me?
“Do you want me to stay?” Evan asks, concerned.
“No, I’ll be okay.” Leaning across the cab of the truck, I hug my brother before opening the door and climbing out. “I love you.”
“I love you too, little sister,” he says. I climb out of the truck, close the door and walk towards the apartment. I see boxes piled up at the door, and Lazaro is nowhere to be found. I thought we were happy. Could I have tried harder to make us happy? I could have but he could’ve too. We weren’t prioritizing our relationship for the longest time and it’s not just my fault. But perhaps there’s still time to fix us.
Entering the apartment, I find him in the bedroom, packing yet another box.
Taking a step forward, I inhale. “Laz, please, let’s talk.”
“I don’t want to talk. I saw what you did. We’re done." His tone is low and direct.
“But Laz, please, I need to explain. It was a mistake, never meant to happen. I’m sorry.”
He scoffs. “Sorry doesn’t cut it.” He stops what he’s doing. “You’ve actually made things easier.”
“What does that mean?”
“What do you think it means?” He closes the box he was just packing and puts it with the others.
“Laz, don’t leave now. It’s late. Why don’t you wait until you’ve thought about this?”
“I’m not leaving.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe there’s a chance to fix things after all. “Thank you.”
“You didn’t let me finish. I’m not leaving… you are. You have an hour to pack the rest of your shit and get out.”
Looking around the room, I find he’s right. He wasn’t packing his things. He was packing mine. How the fuck did I not notice that?
Chapter Eleven
Sebastian
Fuck!
I watch as Tristan disappears out of the bar, chasing after her boyfriend and my heart sinks. Getting up, I attempt to follow her to apologize for kissing her, when I’m cut off by Jaxson.
“What the fuck did you do to my sister?” He growls, taking a step towards me so we’re nose to nose.
Aimee rushes over, pushing us apart. “Not here Jax, this is my job.”
“It’s okay, Ames, I just want to know why my baby sister just ran out of here crying and chasing after her boyfriend.”
I clench my jaw. I slipped in my judgment, but there was no denying that Tristan wanted that kiss too.
“Just tell him what happened, Sebastian,” Aimee pleads.
I blow out a breath. “I kissed her, alright? I fucking kissed her, and her boyfriend saw. That’s what happened.”
Jaxson’s body tenses and I see his hands ball into fists. “Stay. The fuck. Away from my sister. You got it?”
“I can’t do that.”
“Excuse me?” He says, gently pushing Aimee out of the way. “How about you stay away, or I’ll make you stay away.”
Ben stands from his barstool to step between us this time. “That’s enough. We don’t want any problems here, and we definitely don’t want to cause issues for Aimee,” he says, before turning to me. “I think we should go.”
“Yea, that’s probably a good idea.”
“Jaxson,” Evan says, as he jogs towards him. “Give me your keys. Tristan wants to go home. Laz just peeled out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell.”
Jaxson pulls his keys from his pocket and tosses them to Evan who quickly disappears back out the door. A feeling of guilt floods over me. I never ever wanted to hurt Tristan. I want to get to know her. I like her, really like her, and I’m unsure if the attraction is purely sexual or not. I know she has a boyfriend and I probably messed shit up for her. I never want to be the reason for her pain. I want to be the one to make her smile like she did earlier at me. But that’s what I’ve done…caused her pain and in the process hurt myself. Stepping around Jaxson, I down the rest of my beer and grab my keys from the bar before saying bye to everyone and heading for the door.
Sliding into the driver's seat, I close the door and punch the steering wheel in frustration. Well that’s not how tonight was supposed to go. Why the fuck did I come back here?
Chapter Twelve
Tristan
I stand on the sidewalk in shock, staring at all the boxes of my things sitting at my feet. I can’t believe he kicked me out. I mean I knew there was something wrong between us, but never in my wildest dreams did I think he’d kick me out over a kiss. A kiss that was never meant to happen.